The present invention relates to an integrated circuit comprising a switchable current generator having at least a first or current-supply mode and a second or high-impedance mode.
Such switchable current generators (in particular those employing class-A amplifiers with an active load) are known from the prior art but have the drawback that they require at least one pnp transistor to be switched. The current sources comprise one or more pnp transistors and the current sinks comprise one or more npn transistors, which is necessary in order to guarantee accurately controlled and load-independent current sourcing and sinking. However, npn transistors in integrated circuits have substantially faster switching times.